Before the Sun Goes Dark
by pleasant-hell
Summary: Tragedy strikes McKinley High and Brittany sets off to find Santana before it's too late.


This was done via request from Glee1122. I really liked the idea, it just took forever for me to sit down and do it. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

"What happened?"

"There was a gas leak in one of the science labs."

"Is there anyone under there?"

"Yeah. A coach…Sylvester? Yeah that's it. And a student. Santana Lopez."

"They were the only ones in there?"

"They were the only ones that didn't get out before it collapsed."

Santana had never not answered her phone when Brittany called. In fact, one time Santana said she would probably answer the phone underwater if Brittany called. This time Brittany hoped that under a building and underwater were the same thing.

With her phone against her ear, Brittany surveyed the rubble. She knew Santana had gone in early to work out. Her latest competition with Quinn for head Cheerio had sent her into a fitness frenzy. Brittany could visualize where the weight room was. That was where she would start.

She walked on top of where she remembered the walls were so she wouldn't squish any spaces where people might be.

The rescue workers didn't even notice her start her climb to where the weight room was. They were too busy scratching their heads trying to figure out how to start moving the larger pieces of the William McKinley High School complex and put out the few small fires still smoking.

Brittany wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do when she got to where the weight room once was. She couldn't move very much of the concrete by herself and she was going to have to hurry because there was no telling what kind of condition Santana was in and how long it would take the rescue workers to notice she was snooping around and want to drag her kicking and screaming out of danger. If they did want to drag her away, it would definitely be kicking and screaming.

As the blonde neared where the locker room once was, there was more of the building that hadn't been completely destroyed. Part of one of the walls had fallen down, but the rest of it was still standing. She tucked her phone into the waistband of her Cheerio skirt and deftly hopped over the half wall in landing with a clang on top of one of the metal locker doors. She ducked behind the wall and peered over. A few curious eyes were looking her way, but for the most part they were focused on the group of firefighters putting out a fire close to the street.

Tears sprang to her eyes when she saw Santana's parents standing with some police officers. Her mom was bawling while her dad was struggling to hold himself together with his arms around his wife. It finally, really hit Brittany how bad of shape Santana could actually be in. She was under a couple hundred tons of high school and as tough as Santana was…She didn't want to think about it. She just wanted to find Santana.

Brittany tried to steel herself against her emotion, but as she turned around and saw the Cheerio locker room in ruins, it got more difficult. This was always her sanctuary during school hours. If someone was being mean to her or a class was too hard or she just wanted to get out of the drama of Glee, this is where she came. This was where she and Santana would secretly make out among other things and know that they wouldn't get caught. Brittany used to feel safe here.

She continued walking toward the weight room. She walked to the door of the locker room and pushed open the door, only to find it blocked by a large beam that had fallen out of the ceiling. She was able to get the door open enough to squeeze through by she still had to suck in her stomach. However she squeeze caused her phone to clatter to the floor.

She reached down to pick it up and decided to try Santana's cell another call. Maybe Santana had left to get a smoothie before school and had just left her phone in her car when she got to the smoothie place. She called Santana again and again listened carefully. This time she heard a muffled song. Not though the phone, but coming out of the wall in front of her. And more importantly than it was _a_ song, it was _their _song. Which meant Santana's phone was emitting the noise. And because Santana never went anywhere without her phone, that meant Santana was close.

"Santana?" Brittany carefully called out into the mess. She was rewarded with silence.

She moved across the hallway to the door of the weight room with her phone pressed to her ear. The song continued and grew louder as she got closer. When she stepped into the weight room, which no longer had a door, she saw the phone buzzing on the ground next to a pile of ceiling that had fallen in on most of the machines.

Brittany's heart sank. Santana's favorite machine was now under the second floor of the school. Brittany felt her chest tighten as her heart raced. She wanted over to where the second floor had fallen and tried to find a way around it. She found a small hold between the wall and what had fallen. She retrieved Santana's phone before crawling through the hole. A sharp pain shot through her right forearm as she moved through the hole. When she got to the other side, she looked down and saw that there was a large gash in her arm. When she looked back into the hole she saw a sharp piece of metal sticking out on one side.

If she had learned anything from movies, it's that whatever you're wearing makes a great bandage, but only if you tear it off of the bottom of your shirt. Although she would never do anything that hurt her Cheerios uniform under regular circumstances, this was an extreme circumstance. She saw a small tear in the top of her uniform and used that to rip a few inches off of the bottom so she could bandage up her arm.

After that was done, she found the treadmill, half under a pile of concrete. If Santana had been using anything, it would have been the treadmill. However there was no sign of Santana on or around the treadmill or even under the rubble on top of part of the treadmill.

She let out a sigh or relief, but knew that Santana could still be somewhere else in the building. Brittany searched the rest of the weight room for any sign of Santana. When she found none she tried to figure out where else she could be. She decided that since she wasn't in the locker room or the weight room, there was nowhere else that made sense for her to be. So she was just going to keep searching.

She went back the way she came and ended up in the hallway. She looked down in one direction and found a solid wall of concrete and floor tiles from the second floor with smoke coming out of the cracks. She looked in the other direction and saw water pouring out of what used to be the boys restroom and a flickering light barely hanging out of what was left of the ceiling. After looking back and forth, she didn't really see a great option in either direction, but she was less afraid of water and electricity than the fire that was probably on the other side of the heap to her right so she turned to the left and made her way down the hallway as best she could.

The whole situation was getting her down. She felt like she was about to cry all the time, but she kept fighting the tears. She needed something to take her mind off of it so she called Santana's phone. It was obvious Santana wouldn't answer it because it was in her hand, but the ring tone would make her feel better. The song had always been able to make her feel better.

She walked along the hallway, music coming from the waistband of her Cheerio skirt. She didn't get very far before she pushed open another door. The glee room was a sad display. The piano was smashed by lights that had fallen out of the ceiling and the trophy case was crushed by the wall collapsing. All the chairs were mangled pieces of plastic and metal now. It wasn't the room it once was. This further depressed the blonde. She walked fully into the glee room. The wall that had collapsed had been the one between the glee room and Coach Sylvester's office. She figured that that would be a good place to go to from here. Maybe she could get to the other side of the school from there.

As she was walking, she tripped over a piece of chair. She yowled in pain as her knee landed on a rock on the floor.

"Brittany?"

The blonde scrambled to get up, "Coach?"

Sue appeared in the hole between her office and the glee room. She looked torn up and like she was limping a little bit, but she was still in one piece. Before Coach Sylvester could ask what Brittany did to her uniform, her eyes widened. Above Brittany's head, a cascade of rubble was making its way to the hole in the ceiling. She lunged forward and pulled Brittany toward her office just as the metal and drywall fell down, sealing the way out of the glee room.

"What are you doing here?" Sue asked the terrified looking blonde.

"I came to find Santana," Brittany followed her coach into the office, seeing as how it was the only way to go.

"B?" Santana's weak voice called.

When she heard it, Brittany ran to where it was. Santana was seated in Coach Sylvester's chair, looking pained and broken. When Brittany's eyes made it to Santana's middle she let out a small gasp. Santana was only in her workout sports bra and leaving her stomach exposed and what was exposed, showed that Santana's middle was so dark it looked like it was one big bruise.

Brittany wanted to hug her, but was scared to touch her. Instead she gently took Santana's hand. "Wha- what happened?"

"There was a loud bang. Then something fell on me when I was walking down the hallway…" Santana took a large, labored breath, "It was like a- a rock or something. Coach got it off of me and brought me here. It hurts so bad, B."

Tears fell down Brittany's eyes. She'd never seen Santana weak like this or in this much physical pain. She wiped some dirt off of Santana's cheek and press her forehead to Santana's, "What should I do?"

"I don't- I don't know," Santana sighed, "I don't know what happened or what's going on…"

Brittany felt so helpless. Santana usually had a plan of some kind. A plan for everything, but now…Brittany turned around and looked at Coach Sylvester who was limping around trying to find a way out.

When she saw Brittany looking at her, Sue hitched her chin and asked, "Is your arm okay?"

Brittany looked down at the blood soaked material on her arm and nodded. She didn't care about her arm. She cared about Santana. She placed a gentle kiss on Santana's cheek before standing up straight to address Sue. "What do we do?"

Sue bit her lip. She looked from Santana who obviously needed medical attention to Brittany who looked like she'd just survived a war. She shook her head, "We need to get her some help."

Brittany reached for the phones in the waistband of her pants, however she found that they were gone. They must have fallen out when she fell down and were now under a mass that almost crushed her.

"I'll go get help," she breathed. She looked back at Santana. She wanted to stay with her so bad, but she knew that there was no way she'd be able to help Santana like Santana needed.

Sue shook her head, "It's too dangerous. You almost just got flattened."

"I have to," Brittany stated, "You hurt your foot and she needs help. I have to go."

As Sue opened her mouth to argue some more and pull rank on the blonde, Brittany moved to Santana and kissed her full on the mouth, silencing Sue. She had guessed something was going on between them, but never thought she'd see it.

Brittany looked into Santana's fading eyes and whispered, "I love you. I'm going to go get help. I'll be right back."

Before Santana or Sue could say anything, Brittany went into the glee room and started climbing up the collapsed ceiling. She had a plan. She would get up to the second floor and try to wave down the rescue workers.

As she climbed she heard Coach Sylvester call behind her, "Be careful, Brittany."

It didn't take long for her to get on the second floor of the building. Her palms and fingers were cut all over, but she didn't care. All she could think about was how Santana looked. She needed to get Santana help. Where she was, most of the second floor was still intact so she started running toward the front of the school.

As she was running, she heard the floor creak under her. She thought nothing of it as she ran. She was just thinking about Santana. However, one of the creaks gave way to the crash and the floor disappeared from beneath Brittany. She felt like she was getting pummeled on every side by small sharp rocks as she fell. When she came to a stop, she felt like she couldn't breathe. The wind had been knocked out of her and the dust around her was choking her.

She heaved herself off of the ground and looked down at her body. She was bleeding form numerous cuts and scrapes and bruises were already starting to form. However none of those bothered her. She needed to get help for Santana and she was going to do that if it killed her.

After the fall she felt a little dizzy, but she pushed on, moving as fast as she could. She finally made it out of one of the broken windows of the school, cutting her hands some more on the jagged edges. She felt out of the window, pain starting to make its way into her head.

"Brittany!" Puck yelled and shoved his way through the line of firefighters and ran to her.

The rest of the glee club wasn't far behind him as well as some rescue workers. The workers started to try to attend to Brittany but she batted their hands away. "We have to go get Santana."

"You don't need to go anywhere," one of the firefighters said, trying to assess the blonde.

She shook her head; "We have go get her now!"

"Where is she?" Mr. Schue asked.

"She's with Coach Sylvester in her office," Brittany explained and looked at the firefighters, "We have to go get them. Santana's hurt really bad."

"You need to-"

Brittany angrily cut off the man trying to at least wipe some blood off of her forehead. "We have to go get her now!"

Puck ran back to the ambulance and grabbed one of the orange boards they strapped people to. Then he ran past everyone, into the front door, "C'mon Brit."

Brittany escaped the grasps of some of the EMTs and followed him. A few firefighters followed them. It was easier to get through the rubble with some more muscle so it didn't take long for them to get to Coach Sylvester's office.

However when they got there, Santana was out cold and Coach Sylvester looked like she had been crying.

"Santana!" Brittany shrieked. She fell to her knees partly because of emotion and partly because of dizziness next to the chair and picked up Santana's cold, limp hand.

The firefighters took over and Puck helped them clear off Coach Sylvester's desk and set the backboard on it before they set Santana on it.

"She's got a pulse, but it's weak."

"We gotta get her out of here."

The firefighters took off with Santana while Puck helped Sue get over a small pile of rubble in front of the door before looking back at Brittany who was gripping onto the desk to stand. The blonde faltered a bit before her eyes slid closed and she collapsed on the ground.

When Brittany woke up, she felt like she was laying on a cloud. She couldn't quite open her eyes, but she could hear everything going on around her.

"Santana you need to get back into bed," a man's voice, Brittany knew as Santana's dad.

"No. I'm fine," Santana's voice insisted. Her voice was right next to the cloud Brittany was on. Everyone other sound in the room indicated she was in the hospital so her cloud was probably a hospital bed.

There was a pause before her dad said, "At least let me check your stitches."

"Dad, I'm fine," Santana was getting irritated. There was a long pause then Santana asked in a quiet voice, "Is she going to be okay?"

"She should be," he assured her. "She was hit in the head at some point and her brain swelled. Her body shut down so her brain could get back to normal."

"So as soon as she's back to normal she'll wake up?" Santana's voice was weak and small as if she was scared to know of the answer.

There was a pregnant pause, finally punctuated by Santana's dad answering, "We hope so."

Brittany tried to get her body to open her eyes so she could tell Santana she was okay, but her eyes just wouldn't open.

"Hey," Rachel's voice entered the room, "We just came to see how she's doing."

"It's just the same," Santana sighed, defeated.

"You guys can come in if you want," Santana's dad offered, "I have to go make some more rounds, but I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Thank you Mr. Lopez," Puck's voice replied.

After some shuffling of feet, Brittany heard someone start sniffling. From the location of the sound, she knew it was Santana.

"Hey, I'm sure she'll be okay," Quinn's voice was right next to Santana. She tried to sound reassuring, but a small falter in her voice gave away her doubt.

Brittany fought to open her eyes, but all the fighting was making her tired. Finally her body won out and she faded back out into oblivion.

The next thing Brittany was conscious of was singing. She heard someone singing. After a few seconds she knew who it was and a few seconds later she knew what Santana was singing. It was their song. The song they picked out together one night and knew it had to be it.

_I never meant to be the one to let you down  
If anything, I thought I saw myself going first  
I didn't know how to stick around  
How to see anybody but me be getting hurt  
_

As Brittany slowly opened her eyes, the light in the room was blinding. She squeezed her eyes shut before trying again. This time she was able to squint enough to see Santana sitting next to her, quietly singing while tears flowed from her eyes.

_I keep remembering the summer night  
And the conversation breaking up the mood  
I didn't want to tell you you were right  
Like the season changing, oh, I felt it too_

Does anybody know how to hold my heart  
How to hold my heart?  
'Cause I don't want to let go, let go, let go too soon

She couldn't quite speak yet, but she could move her fingers a little. She moved them toward Santana under she felt her best friend's skin under her own.

_I want to tell you so before the sun goes dark  
How to hold my heart  
'Cause I don't want to let go, let go, let go of you_

Santana looked down at her and let out a delighted smile. She almost dove on the bed and wrapped her arms around Brittany, but pulled away just before she touched Brittany. Instead she dropped a lingering kiss on Brittany's forehead and whispered, "You're okay."

"Are you okay?" Brittany asked, seeing the bruises on Santana's arms and remembering the stitches Santana's dad referred to earlier.

Santana nodded, wiping her eyes. She took Brittany's hand between her own and held onto it. She took a shaky breath and smiled, "Thank you so much."

"For what?" Brittany asked, confused.

"For saving me," Santana replied, "Coach Sylvester said that after I passed out, you came back with the firefighters."

Brittany remembered that. Then she remembered watching Puck would out the door with Coach Sylvester and that's where it all went black.

"How'd I get out of the school?" Brittany asked.

"I think Puck carried you," Santana shrugged, "I don't know. I woke up in a hospital room and hit Finn until he told me where you were."

The blonde smiled. It sounded like Santana was back to normal, at least personality-wise.

They were quiet for a while. Santana started to stand, "I guess I should tell them you're awake."

Brittany tightened her grip on Santana's hand to keep her from going, "Stay here for a few minutes."

Santana stopped moving and then sat back down. "Okay." She studied Brittany's face, looking for any sign of discomfort. When she saw none she leaned on the bed next to Brittany, "Do you remember what happened in Coach Sylvester's office, when you found us?"

Brittany nodded. She remembered every detail of that horrible nightmare.

"You kissed me and told me you loved me."

The blonde nodded. She remembered that too. She'd never told Santana that before because Santana always seemed like she wouldn't like it but in that situation Brittany knew she had to tell her just in case she didn't come back in time.

Santana ran her fingers through Brittany's hair and leaned down. When she captured Brittany's lips, the blonde's whole body seemed like it came to life again. She could move her arms around Santana's neck to deepen the kiss and she leaned up to make the kiss last a little longer. When Santana broke away, she grinned, "I love you too."


End file.
